Passive optical networks (PONs) are commonly used in the present world for providing a variety of services, like telephony, cable television and internet, simultaneously to subscribers. A PON consists of an Optical line termination (OLT) at a service provider's office and a number of Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) near end users. The ONTs de-multiplex the optical signals received from the service provider into its various components, viz. telephony, cable television and data. The optical signals are transmitted to the ONTs through a fibre optic cable while the de-multiplexed component signals from the ONTs are transmitted to the subscriber's home by using various output cables, such as CAT 6, RJ-11 and the like, corresponding to the type of component signals.
The PON provides few peculiar advantages. Firstly, PON reduces the amount of fiber required, and local exchange and field equipment needed to provide multiple services. Secondly, PON does not require specific electronics as it replaces them with passive optical splitters. Further, since optical splitters of a PON do not require any power, the overall installation and operating cost is lowered. Thirdly, by removing a potential point of failure, namely the power supply, the risk of downtime is also reduced, making PON much more reliable. Therefore, there has been a very pertinent need to build on PON capabilities and improve it further.
One disadvantage in present day PONs is the limitation in utilising the full capacity thereof, which may be attributed to the underutilisation of all available ports on the ONT. For example, it has been observed that normally ONTs support 4 service ports. However, it has been observed that not all the ports are utilised by the subscribers. Further, it has been observed that not all the bandwidth available for providing services to the subscribers is utilized. Accordingly, there is available spare bandwidth which can be easily utilised for delivery of services to the subscribers in such PONs.
In today's world where the number of services required by the subscribers is increasing day by day, the problem is with limitation of ports and unused bandwidth in those ports. Therefore, it is imperative to determine a solution that traverse aforesaid problem of underutilization of ports on the ONT. One way to address the problem has been to install more and more ONTs near to the subscribers' premises. However, it will be apparent to persons skilled in the art that such solution increases the overall cost of the network overlay, thereby increasing the costs for the subscribers.
Accordingly, there is a need to develop systems and methods to circumvent aforesaid problems and provide to customers many more services as compared to the number of services provided by present day network architectures.
Particularly, there exists a need for optimal utilization of the ONTs being used in a PON such that services may be provided to a larger number of subscribers through each of the ONTs.
More particularly, there is a need for a better utilization of the resources and bandwidth available at the ONTs in a PON for enabling an increased number of subscribers to be serviced per ONT.
There also exists a need for an improved ONT that may be configured in a manner such that the resources and bandwidth thereof may be optimally utilized, thereby enabling servicing of an increased number of subscribers per ONT.